Dow Today: Coca-Cola (KO) Higher

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI) is trading up 14 points (+0.1%) at 13,218 as of Friday, Apr 27, 2012, 10:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 128.6 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 750.3 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,455 issues advancing vs. 1,320 declining with 166 unchanged.

The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), which is sporting a $1.11 gain (+1.5%) bringing the stock to $76.82. This single gain is lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 8.4 points or roughly accounting for 60% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Coca-Cola currently sits at 3.4 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 7.8 million shares.

Coca-Cola has a market cap of $169.68 billion and is part of the consumer goods sector and food & beverage industry. Shares are up 7.1% year to date as of Thursday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.7%.

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company primarily offers sparkling beverages and still beverages. The company has a P/E ratio of 20.1, above the average food & beverage industry P/E ratio of 19.9 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Coca-Cola as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, good cash flow from operations, solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share and increase in net income. Although no company is perfect, currently we do not see any significant weaknesses which are likely to detract from the generally positive outlook.

If you liked this article you might like

Blackstone Group's Byron Wien has seen all sorts of cycles in the stock market during his storied career on Wall Street. TheStreet talks with Wien about what he thinks the market will do next after a surprise correction (and subsequent rally) in February.